Could Maine Food Sovereignty Be Basis of National Political Sovereignty Model?

I started this blog ten years ago to report on events and issues I thought the mainstream news media were either ignoring or misrepresenting when it came to regulation of small farms, and especially small dairy farms distributing raw milk.

In the process, I poked both the mainstream media and government agencies I thought were badly reporting events and data. I went after media for simply accepting CDC data on raw milk and other food safety illnesses, without looking at underlying assumptions, and I went directly after the CDC and the U.S. FDA for misinterpreting data about raw milk and raw milk cheese.

In the process, I think those of us in favor of food choice made some strides. The number of states sanctioning raw milk has increased, the number of legal/regulatory cases against small dairies has decreased, and the pressure to restrict availability of raw-milk cheese has seriously stalled.

In all this conflict, I never accused a media outlet or a government agency of fabricating a story, of publishing what we are now calling “fake news.” That’s because I never saw such an example, even in situations where I vehemently disagreed with the portrayal of events or interpretation of data. (That isn’t to say fake news hasn’t been published—but eventually with acknowledgment, and embarrassment, by the media affected.)

Yet I now see readers of this blog or on Facebook with whom I’ve interacted over the years respond in recent weeks to my posts or comments by immediately discounting any references to the NY Times, or other mainstream media, as not to be believed, and thus not to be a factor in any discussion. Recent case in point is Gary Ogden, who argues, following my previous post: “It is incredibly naive to trust the New York Times, or any of the mainstream media. Fake news? A partial list: WMD in Iraq. The Warren Commission Report. The 9/11 Report. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident. ‘The light at the end of the tunnel.’ Just the obvious ones. It is, as well, the framing of the stories, and the multitude of topics that are internally censored (no questioning of vaccine policy allowed, ever).”

It seems absurd to have to say it, but none of the examples listed by Ogden originated with the media. The media reported on these incidents or reports put out by government officials or commissions. There was no way for the media to know the real situation about the weapons of mass destruction claims by American intelligence (and accepted by many other countries), until various inspectors, including U.S. troops, disproved them. (Not to say the U.S. government wasn’t terribly negligent and deceitful, to effect we became involved in a brutal war that led to destruction throughout the Mideast.) The Warren Commission issued a report on the assassination of President John Kennedy, which was the first official assessment of how the killing occurred. It has been the subject of endless debate and discussion and countervailing theories, and to this day there isn’t a final word on the subject. Similar situations with the other examples listed.

I’m not sure what the point is even supposed to be—that the media should have known and reported the “real” story behind these situations before the government reports? That the media shouldn’t have published the government versions because the media should assume the government versions are wrong, or fake? If not, then whose version of the events should be published?

Returning to the example that ignited the “fake news” debate here: the investigation of a report that the Democrats were busing in paid demonstrators to protest Trump’s election right after Nov. 8. The NY Times reporters interviewed the man who came up with the “news,” which he readily acknowledged wasn’t real news. He had seen a bunch of buses, and then extrapolated, without evidence, that they must be associated with the demonstrators. It’s basic investigative journalism, going back over the chronology of events to determine what actually occurred. Yet any number of people, including several here, refuse to even read it because it comes from the NY Times.

As I told one individual who gave me that response regarding another issue, based on my providing a link to a NY Times report, if you’re going to reject out of hand any documentation that comes from mainstream media, and not provide other documentation in its place, then there really isn’t a basis for any kind of rational discussion.

Presumably, this new rigidity in thinking is related to our country’s ongoing political upheaval. Clearly, many Americans have come to lose all trust in the mainstream news media. Clearly, much of the disillusionment stems from the drumbeat of criticism from Donald Trump, who disparages the media in general, especially media that might question or criticize him in any way. And now we learn it is quite the thing by wealthy business people to try to quash the media— the NY Times Sunday in its magazine documented a campaign by a handful of business tycoon billionaires (including Trump) to systematically try to intimidate the media through libel-based lawsuits. It’s well worth reading, simply to understand better the ins and outs of libel law, and how these tycoons want to use it to restrict freedom of the press.

One more time, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with questioning any publication’s account of events, or interpretation of events, especially if you have reason to suspect the presentation is inaccurate. No one has a monopoly on truth.

But there’s a difference between questioning and debating, and refusing even to read or listen. No one knows where this new disdain for a free press is headed, but here is my prediction: The ongoing efforts to trample freedom of the press will come bundled with other squashing of rights (with the exception of gun rights). As a result, we’re headed toward some kind of civil conflict. It may not be a civil war of the type that nearly destroyed this country 150 years ago, but it could be bitter enough that it leads to a serious disintegration of our union. Already there are rumbles from a few independent-minded states and cities of rejection of the likely coming new agenda. San Francisco lawmakers recently passed a resolution resolving to defend the city’s undocumented immigrants, its gay residents, and others. There is talk in California of outright secession. Mayors of other cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle have reaffirmed their status as “sanctuary cities.”

To me, this kind of thing is in keeping with the move in Maine that has led some 16 local towns to pass ordinances for food sovereignty, and keep passing them despite a veto of the move by the state’s supreme court. These towns are practicing food freedom as an option to steer clear of over-regulated food. Why shouldn’t other cities and towns seek ways to avoid restrictions of human rights, including deportations of local residents back to Mexico or other places, of restrictions on women seeking abortions, of gays seeking to have families, and so on and so forth?

One thing is for sure: A free press will be as essential to keeping people informed about the coming challenges, including about the moves to restrict the media, as it was in 1776, when journalist Thomas Paine published Common Sense, to rouse Americans to revolt. He published the booklet anonymously, because we didn’t yet have freedom of the press, and he could have been arrested and executed for what he did.

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Congratulations to Canadian farmers Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones, on the dropping of charges in connection with a “sheep-napping” case four years ago. An Ontario judge agreed with the defendants the the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was unreasonably delaying the case. The farmers’ victory is testimony to their resistance against government retribution and intimidation in connection with the slaughter of rare Shropshire sheep that the CFIA was convinced was carrying a dangerous disease that could spread widely among area sheep. The government had gone to the extreme tactic of convincing a judge to enforce a press blackout of the proceedings–something I fought on this blog. And here is a report from a national Canadian paper, on today’s proceedings and background on the case.

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53 Comments on "Could Maine Food Sovereignty Be Basis of National Political Sovereignty Model?"

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Jack Moore

November 29, 2016 6:43 am

It is incredibly naive NOT to trust reporting by the New York Times or to expect perfection from any media outlet. TheTimes aspires to the highest standard of journalistic integrity. Their resources for investigative journalism are among the best in the the country.

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Gary Ogden

November 29, 2016 9:48 am

David: My distrust of, and disgust with, the media, and particularly the New York Times, has nothing to do with Trump. It has to do mainly with the nearly total censorship of any questioning of vaccine safety, efficacy, or policy. This is internal censorship, coming from the highest levels of the editorial staff, and it occurs in virtually every newspaper in the land (as well as broadcast and most on line media). When a few dozen measles cases occurred in California last year, the media, doing the bidding of the CDC public relations machine (which it funds to the tune of hundreds of millions per year-see the Association of Public Health Administrators budget), went into overdrive to scare the public into thinking it a dire emergency. Merck stock jumped. Then the NYT gave the bully pulpit to Paul Offit, a notorious and wealthy vaccine developer (and bully), but allowed not a word from any parent of a vaccine-injured child, from any physician who had seen and treated vaccine injury, from any scientist alarmed at the toxicity of aluminum nano particles, which nearly all the pediatric vaccines have, or the far worse neurotoxic synergy between aluminum and mercury, particularly in infants,… Read more »

Gary, I’m glad you narrowed down your media concerns, and I’m not surprised the biggest one is the vaccine safety issue. I know that, for me as a journalist, it’s been the most vexing issue I’ve seen. So vexing, in fact, that I’ve written little about it. It’s one of those issues that seems more complicated than I can comprehend for the purposes of writing about it….so I’ve avoided it. It reminds me some of the time in 1960s and 1970s, when metropolitan dailies ran supreme, in significant measure because of all the advertising they received from local department stores. One of the unspoken rules for reporters was that you didn’t try to write negative news articles about any of the big department stores, because they would never get published, and you might lose your job as well. Today, I think we see some of this with the network news shows, which are heavily sponsored by Big Pharma, and very reluctant to broadcast negative news about prescription drugs in general. It’s difficult to overstate the damage done by Andrew Wakefield’s research. I don’t even know any more what of his research might be accurate, but I do know that the… Read more »

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Gordon Watson

November 30, 2016 7:25 pm

OK, I’ll give you an example of what ‘fake news’ looks like, on the internet. The Website “Barfblog” relentlessly demonizes raw milk. Yesterday, the worst he could do, was, puke-out the 30-year-old report of children sickened after drinking raw milk at a commercial dairy farm. URL http://barfblog.com/2016/11/raw-milk-is-risky-scotch-and-a-smoke-for-your-5-year-old/ Although I, and others, regularly post comments attempting to educate its webmaster, he will not admit the difference between raw milk from CAFOs, versus REAL MILK produced by artisanal dairies intended for human consumption. The guy has what amounts to a fixation on ‘food poisoning porn’ … the statistics about Leafy raw greens are scary! it’s quite edifying, to plow- through the articles about outbreaks from all foodstuffs OTHER THAN raw milk. For instance = recently, dozens of children got sick traceable to a petting zoo. Some of them very seriously ill in intensive care, with HUS. But do we see the resident harpy Mary McG-Martin? calling for petting zoos to be outlawed? His own data proves that instances of harm from drinking raw milk, are so far below the level of constituting a “public health hazard”, that, if it weren’t for the mighty efforts of Doug Powell / Bill Marler, we’d never… Read more »

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Gary Ogden

December 5, 2016 6:44 pm

David: There was no damage done by Dr. Wakefield’s research, in fact, quite the contrary. This research was conducted by a team of thirteen, including Professor John Walker Smith, at the time the world’s leading pediatric gastroenterologist, Dr. Wakefield, Dr. Simon Murch and ten others. They were pioneers, and their discovery of ileocolitis comorbid with autism is now accepted by the mainstream, and thought to occur in about 70% of those with an ASD diagnosis. This research has been replicated in Canada, the U.S, Venezuela, and Australia. It represents good science. And the CDC itself conducted a study to test the hypothesis that the MMR increased the likelihood of regression to autism. What did they find? That it indeed does, if given prior to 36 months. What they do with these findings? Threw them in a “big garbage can” according to one of the authors of the study, Dr. William S. Thompson, who has whistleblower status. He is awaiting a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, and has been waiting 28 months. They are simply too cowardly to issue it, and open this vast can of worms. This is the subject of the film Vaxxed, and the book “Vaccine Whistleblower.”… Read more »

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Diana Gumpert Douglas

November 29, 2016 2:07 pm

Thank you for a thoughtful and important article on the freedom of the press. I feel we need to be vigilant in making sure that we have a free press.

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Shana Milkie

November 30, 2016 9:51 am

So true! A free press is fundamental for an informed citizenry, and hence, democracy.

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Blesse\'d are the Cheese Makers

November 30, 2016 7:42 pm

Correction. Please.

We are NOT a democracy. We are a Constitutional Republic. A democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.

I agree with you, however, that a free press “is fundamental for an informed citizenry.”

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mark mcafee

November 29, 2016 3:58 pm

Gary, Thank you for your comment on vaccination injury and risk. I totally agree with most of your assessment. The media somehow treats the CDC as “the never to be questioned unbiased standard for truth” and health for all of us and even the world. The CDC and their counterparts in the FDA and the industries that they regulate and represent have provided a deep disservice to America by their bias and unwillingness to address the real data and the tons of EU studies on raw milk as well as vaccination risk. Time and time again…I have sent letters to the CDC and FDA begging them to look at their own data and draw proper conclusions based on real studies in the EU….they will not even return a call or acknowledge real facts. Now…I sue them ( FTCLDF ) and use the FOIA data that I received from them in the lawsuit to get them to open their eyes. We must ask ourselves why?? We must not forget that the medical community moves at a snails pace with regards to progress and new learning. The public, the internet and the EU moves at warp speed. The human genome project now… Read more »

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Blesse\'d are the Cheese Makers

November 29, 2016 7:51 pm

During the pre-revolutionary days in the mid-1700’s, there were two major print mediums that existed which were used to disseminate information; 1) pamphlets and 2) newspapers. “Common Sense,” written by Thomas Paine, was self-described as a “pamphlet.” As Mr. Gumpert points out, “Common Sense,” written under a pseudonym, was very influential on the eve of the American Revolution. Paine wrote this document in a succinct, readable style and “Common Sense” quickly became a “must read” for the colonists who advocated secession from England. John Adams is quoted to have said, “Without the pen of the author of “Common Sense,” the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.” Pamphlets, newspapers, books, broadsides and other printed materials were circulated all over the colonies to spread information. Much information and misinformation was published in many of these publications and most of the authors who penned these documents used pseudonyms. Pseudonyms were used because the authors feared retribution from a tyrannical government. Sound familiar? The printed word at the time, as Robert G. Parkinson points out, “acted as a binding agent that mitigated the chances that the colonies would not support one another when war with Britain broke out in 1775.” After… Read more »

CheeseMaker, I don’t want to seem like a shill for the NY Times, but the Ohio State incident was on its front page this morning, including suggestions that the attack might be terrorism. The article was written by a team of three reporters, which is a lot of manpower. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/active-shooter-ohio-state-university.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0 Interesting, it also had an op-ed piece arguing against having Facebook get involved in screening “Fake News”, by a journalist. I think he’s agreeing with your concern about “big brother” screwing up the Internet. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/opinion/facebook-shouldnt-fact-check.html You raise some good questions about Fake News. I agree with you that people should make their own judgments about the veracity of information coming out via the media. I’m not sure the reason fake news has become a more prominent issue is because of a liberal agenda, though. The reason I’ve become more aware of it is that there seems to be a lot more of it…and amazingly, it’s nearly all designed to make “liberals” look mercenary or unpatriotic. The buses in Austin story was designed to make it look like liberals were paying people who otherwise wouldn’t care to protest Trump. The story that Obama had outlawed the pledge of allegiance is another… Read more »

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mark

November 30, 2016 1:57 pm

DINO-MEDIA HAS LONG TRACK RECORD OF LYING
The REAL Fake-News (MSM, or what I call Dino-Media) have a LONG track record of pushing collectivism, parroting “authority” and just plain flat-out lying! But more often the lies are by the very deceptive use of “by omission”! This is why I personally have not watched Dino-Media for over 10yrs. Because the problem of omission etc… is so insidious, even an “alert” person can have their opinion altered when they hear something over and over and over again. The whole “eat whole grains” BS is just one such example…

NY TIMES-WALTER DURANY-PULITZER PRIZE-1932
One of the NYTimes biggest lies (and which its author Walter Duranty won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932) were the series of reports praising Joseph Stalin!!! Just one of his believing/following authority reports was Duranty’s denial that Stalin was starving Ukranians etc…

Of course, I suggest one to research this themselves… don’t take my word for it…

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Gordon Watson

November 30, 2016 2:37 pm

more along the same line, is the way the NY Times went to Cuba and interviewed Fidel Castro in hiding prior to him seizing power. Then reported ‘Castro is not a communist’. Somehow failing to notice , let alone investigate … certainly NOT report! … that Castro and Ernesto Che Gueverra had been trained by the Soviets to foment violent revolution. Contrast the obituaries of Pinochet versus Castro, in the New York Times ….set along side the undeniable atrocities perpetrated by El Commandante Castro, Pinochet looks like a boy scout. Yet Pinochet is called “a brutal dictator”. Castro is revered. A Solzenhitzen told us = ‘ the way the world’s press treats communism, speaks volumes as to who it’s ultimately working for’

A number of mainstream media have disgusting past histories. Time Magazine was for many years to the right of Gordon Watson. The NYTimes also ignored the Holocaust, for all practical purposes. I think the lesson isn’t that you don’t read such publications, but rather that you monitor a variety of publications/sites to help you make judgments about what’s going on. No one has a monopoly on truth.

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Gordon Watson

November 30, 2016 5:00 pm

“to the right of Gordon Watson” ?! = … in Canada, people any farther-out than me, that way on the political spectrum, are facing jail time.

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mark

December 7, 2016 12:38 am

Apparently Dino-Media is even worse than I was aware of. Even many well known “journalists” (Dan Rather, Keith Obermann, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald etc…) have admitted or acknowledge there is vast SELF-CENSORSHIP! This new article has much of the detail… http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/7-reasons-corporate-media-pro-war.html and goes into some of the reasons why… which really shouldnt be that surprising… Glenn Greenwald: “Put another way, the company that owns The Washington Post is almost entirely at the mercy of the Federal Government and the Obama administration — the entities which its newspaper ostensibly checks and holds accountable. “By the end of 2010, more than 90 percent of revenue at Kaplan’s biggest division and nearly a third of The Post Co.’s revenue overall came from the U.S. government.” The Post Co.’s reliance on the Federal Government extends beyond the source of its revenue; because the industry is so heavily regulated, any animosity from the Government could single-handedly doom the Post Co.’s business — a reality of which they are well aware: The Post Co. realized there were risks attached to being dependent on federal dollars for revenue — and that it could lose access to that money if it exceeded federal regulatory limits. “It was understood… Read more »

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D. Smith

December 7, 2016 10:28 am

@ Mark: Jeff Bezos owns the WaPo. He also owns Amazon.

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Blesse\'d are the cheese makers

December 7, 2016 8:10 pm

I don’t want to go all “conspiracy theorist” on you, but six (6) entities own 90 percent of the MSM. See below:

With that said, simple logic indicates how simple it is for these six entities to control the narrative. When you add the fact that “journalists” who work for these six mega outfits are privy to all the interconnected entities to these six controlling corporations, it is a wonder we ever get the real picture or the facts on anything. Probably have a better chance of getting a snowball in hell.

On top of that, entities like CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Washington Post, etc., are the reigning kings and queens of “Fake News.”

This is highly misleading, in any number of ways. Doesn’t allow for NY Times, as just one example of MSM. Doesn’t include dozens and dozens of magazines, major online pubs (like Slate, Huffington Post, Yahoo News, etc., etc.) which have become part of MSM. In other words, this is old and inaccurate news.

what was the New York Times reporting December 8th 1941? A sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese … supposedly. Only 3/4 of a century later, it is proven that the government of the united States contrived the attack as the way to put the country into the war in Europe, even though its President had campaigned to keep it out. Beyond question = the War Party, delivered America to the Usurers. People who dared to speak against it, were tried for sedition. Have we seen a line of print calling it what it was : Treason : in the acres of paper, since, published by your friend, The Grey Lady? No, fake news that it always was … it’s history as propagandized by the “victors”, and they’re sticking to that story … regardless of the hard evidence otherwise

What’s going on in the Middle East, this very hour = is more of the same

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Blesse\'d are the cheese makers

December 8, 2016 8:11 am

And Mr. Gumpert stated on Nov. 29, 2016 “It reminds me some of the time in 1960s and 1970s, when metropolitan dailies ran supreme, in significant measure because of all the advertising they received from local department stores. One of the unspoken rules for reporters was that you didn’t try to write negative news articles about any of the big department stores, because they would never get published, and you might lose your job as well. Today, I think we see some of this with the network news shows, which are heavily sponsored by Big Pharma, and very reluctant to broadcast negative news about prescription drugs in general.” So here is my point. Do you honestly believe this has changed in any way with any given media outlet? I submit to you that this paradigm actually controls the narrative today, across the board. Let’s take the NY Times as an example since you seem to always circle back to that media outlet. Since you quoted Yahoo as an example of “reliable,” I call your attention to Yahoo Finance. Please take a look at their page showing ownership interest in The New York Times Company (NYT). https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NYT/holders?p=NYT If you look at… Read more »

I think where your analysis runs into trouble is in trying to paint the mainstream media as some kind of monolith. Yes, media companies are often large corporations, in business to make money. News and information, commonly referred to as “content,” is their product. But that content is produced by individuals, professional journalists. They’re like professionals of any kind (farmers, cheese makers, lawyers, doctors, etc.)….some are very good at what they do, and others aren’t so good. They all have good days and bad days. Make their share of errors (like misquoting people, spelling names wrong, giving them incorrect titles), try to do better going forward. The good publications admit their errors, via corrections. At most publications, journalists propose as many articles to write as they are assigned. In other words, there’s no conspiratorial corporate money men/women assigning articles to be written, based on the Ad Council, or anything else. Moreover, journalists at the best publications work apart from the advertising departments. The church-state separation has been undermined in recent years, with pressure for revenue, but it’s still intact at the best publications (like WSJ, NYTimes, Washington Post). You and others are correct, that “Fake News” has been around a… Read more »

One other thing, Cheesemaker, re: all your slams on CA (and other “liberal” outposts). I pose this Q: why is it that these liberal outposts, which you would cast to the sea, are the country’s most prosperous areas? All these areas, especially around major cities like San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Portland, Boston, NYC, are booming. Housing prices are through the roof, salaries are sky high. You cast these areas out to sea, and the U.S. is really struggling economically. But why is it CA has Silicon Valley, Boston has Route 128 tech corridor, NYC rules world commerce? I’ll give you a hint: It’s about education. These places have the best colleges and universities (also bastions of liberalism). These places of higher learning (Stanford, U of CA, MIT, Harvard, NYU, etc., etc.) turn out the entrepreneurs who start the companies that create huge amounts of wealth. Be grateful for these bastions of liberalism, Cheesemaker, they help boost demand for your product.

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Blesse\'d are the Cheese Makers

November 30, 2016 6:47 pm

Mr. Gumpert Thank you for the “Fact Check” link, “How to Spot Fake News” from http://www.factcheck.org. Interesting article by Lori Roberson and Eugene Kiely. I fact checked the fact checkers and found that factcheck.org is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation and the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Factcheck.org has been rated by some as slightly left of center, by others as center and by yet others as slightly right of center. Probably a reasonable place to go to at least get an opinion on a purported “news” item. The take away from “FactCheck” is you should always check a publication’s sources and double check. I think that is true of any alleged news item — especially when the “journalist” (notice I put in quotations) uses rhetoric when making the report such as, “So and so, an alleged member of the far right “Alt-Right” did such and such.” — Or, “So and so, an alleged member of the far left radicals, did such and such.” As soon as I see that type of embellishment either way, my BS Meter starts to head to the red line pretty quickly. Regarding Facebook and Jessica Lessin’s article in the NY Times “Facebook Shouldn’t Fact… Read more »

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Joseph Heckman

November 30, 2016 9:35 pm

See chapter on “Malfunction of the American Media” in the book entitled: Altered Genes Twisted Truth, How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public. By Steven M. Druker.

Joseph, no question the media have accepted much of the GMO producers’ agenda. Much as they have in the area of food safety.

One of the political mysteries thus far is where Trump stands on GMOs. I can’t vouch for this source, though the writer sounds somewhat informed….saying Trump and associates very much pro GMO, even mores than Obama.

Here’s an interesting take on how Trump essentially uses “fake news” to manipulate the MSM: “Trump has revealed that the entire journalistic system is based on the assumption that political actors will stay within certain parameters of truth and sanity. Some are more dishonest than others, but there’s a limit. “The President said this today” coverage can be problematic, but much of the time it’s perfectly reasonable, since he’s the most important person in the political world and his words and beliefs have a profound effect on what happens not just here but around the globe. “Trump realizes that when you step outside those limits, you can manipulate the media at will because their normal ways of doing things are inadequate to the task. You can take any idea, no matter how preposterous, and make half the country believe it. And when journalists push back, it’ll only make your supporters more firm in their loyalty. “This is part of a broader assault Trump is mounting on almost every institution of public life in America — the government, the media, the education system, even democracy itself. He’s been doing it from the beginning, not only spreading lies in a volume that… Read more »

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Gordon Watson

December 1, 2016 10:24 am

since we’re going on about ‘fake news’, considering what Paul Craig Roberts has to say … [Assistant Treasury Secretary under Ronald Regan] from his interview with Greg Hunter = Economic expert and journalist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts thinks the recent publication of the so-called ‘fake news” list recently published by the Washington Post signals a major turning point for all of the mainstream media (MSM). Dr. Roberts explains, “I think this is the death knell for the mainstream media. I think this list essentially kills the credibility of the mainstream media and certainly the Washington Post. It has demonstrated it is completely devoid of any integrity. I am a former Wall Street Journal editor, and if we had done something like that, Warren Phillips would have fired every one of us. We would have been told to get out. You can’t carry on this kind of assault on people. I think this is a sign of desperation.”

I read the interview with Paul Craig Roberts, and must say, a lot of it doesn’t make much sense. I was at the WSJ at the time Warren Phillips was publisher and then president of Dow Jones, in the 1970s–I knew him, had a number of extended conversations with him. While he began his career as a journalist, by the 1970s and 1980s, he was a business executive, running a major corporation, and his attention was focused on P&L trends. Fake news wasn’t a problem then (except from the government), because there was no internet. I feel reasonably certain Phillips would not have been pleased if some Russian or Rumanian wise guys had replicated the WSJ logo and spread fake WSJ “news” around all the social media in the name of his “brand”. In fact, I could imagine him taking aggressive legal counteraction. Same goes for Roberts’ views of the world equity markets, that they’re all controlled by the U.S. Fed, as a way to keep stocks up and gold down. I’m afraid the Fed just doesn’t have the power to control all markets that way. But that’s been a long-time explanation from gold bugs as to why the price… Read more »

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Mark Mcafee

November 30, 2016 11:33 pm

Question….why did Trump get sent to military boarding school for years and years when he was a kid?
He admits himself….he was a misbehaving bully. He has not changed a bit. Every single act is ego centric…he is a business bully that is so shallow, a twit will trigger a tirade. We are in for a real ride.

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Ken Conrad

December 1, 2016 8:41 am

Mark.

Donald Trump is a complicated individual.

If he did indeed admit that he was a “misbehaving bully” then that’s a good thing and a step in the right direction. When individuals on the other hand fail to acknowledge their shortcomings and try to portray themselves as something other then what they are, then that can be a real problem. His willingness to reach out to some of his most vocal critics such as Mitt Romney is an admirable leadership quality.

In the meantime I hold onto this hope, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else”. Winston Churchill

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Blesse\'d are the Cheese Makers

December 1, 2016 9:44 am

Mr. M —

Sir. You really need to either get back on your meds or go see your therapist. Your unsubstantiated tirades are really getting old. Try to get back on track, will ya? This site is called “The Complete Patient” and we should be dealing with food issues. Yes. I went “political” on here prior to now, but only in response to your idiotic leftist progressive ranting raving BS. You don’t know shit about Trump and neither do I. We will see what happens when it happens.

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Ken Conrad

December 2, 2016 3:38 pm

I certainly hope Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price follows through with his belief and that his philosophy of independent choice and individual autonomy is broadened and expands to other areas such as, enabling consumers the freedom to make informed choice with respect to the food that they consume.

Yes, it will be very interesting to see how this unfolds, whether he really has concerns about vaccination, and whether he supports not only food rights, but so-called alternative medicine options. Another view getting a lot of attention is that Price is really part of the Speaker Paul Ryan stealth campaign to drastically reduce government-supported health benefits, including Medicare, which has been an economic necessity for millions of American seniors (something all Canadians have, not just seniors).

in Vancouver there’s a 68-day hearing going on in the Supreme Court of BC, which is the culmination of a 20 year ( yes, two decades ) case about whether a doctor can operate outside Canada’s Soviet-style COMPULSORY medical regime. Of course, the question has already been answered, because Dr Brian Day – the Petitioner – has been carrying on business for private profit, all that time. Everybody knows that Canada has a 2-tier medical system. But under this incarnation of red fascism with a smiley-face, one is not allowed to say that aloud. So after 40 years of socialism ruining health care, they’ve found a way to save face … let the judges write the excuses = “mistakes were made but not by us”. It’s the Canadian way the good news is : human beings are immeasurably inventive. People will always get what they want, regardless of whether it’s called a free market or a “black market”. The business of health care is no different. As the Western version of “disease maintenance for profit” implodes into an obscenely expensive, statist drug stupor, Informed consumers are taking responsibility for our own health. And the elitist manager-class will be the last… Read more »

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Ken Conrad

December 3, 2016 2:17 am

Canada’s so-called “Universal” health care system is far from all-inclusive and it is plagued with difficulties.
First and foremost, the Canadian Medical Association monopolizes Canada’s health care system and it is they… that determine the type medical care that is considered acceptable for funding. Secondly, the system gets bogged down in red tape and cost taxpayers a fortune to operate with incomprehensible projected operating cost (“50% of operational spending in some provinces”) and wait times that are driving politicians to despair and prompting them to consider and adopt a two tier private/public system. Wait times for procedures are such that many Canadians are compelled to travel south of the border to the US in order to get the health care they require.

I wish you all the best in your attempt in the United States to establish an equitable and viable public healthcare system.

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Emma Gardner

December 3, 2016 3:41 pm

To throw in a second point of view, after having over half-a-century of experience in this Canadian public health system — including having had three major operations, four children, and various major and minor illnesses — I have zero complaints about my own experience in the public health system here. Nor do I personally know anyone who has had to travel outside of Canada for any operations or procedures. These events make the news because they are rare – they are not the norm. Also, the CMA has VERY little influence here in BC – our Ministry of Health and the five regional health authorities make the funding decisions.

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Gordon S Watson

December 3, 2016 7:55 pm

actually, no. In British Columbia, the directing mind of the disease-maintenance- racket, is = the Patterns of Practice Committee within the BC College of Physicians & Surgeons. Of that statutorily-mandated committee of 5 warm bodies, only a simple majority = 3 = is needed, for a modality to be considered orthodox. Everything else is beyond the pale. All else in the entire medical system issues from that convention of the cult of the White Robe. Best example of how that dictatorship functions, being : the way artificial abortion was authorized lacking any evidence that it is at all, ever, ‘therapeutic’. And I have that admission on official stationary of the College. But what difference does that make, now, eh? Now that BC taxpayers are compelled to participate in the Medical Services Plan, then just shut up and pay up. “We’ll tell you what’s right and wrong”, say the demigods after 35 years of socialized medicine in BC, the vultures are coming home to roost. Government has to admit that the growth of the health-care industry portends to consume ALL of the revenue of the state. But since that simply cannot happen, the early adapters are taking matters in to our… Read more »

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Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard

December 4, 2016 9:52 am

Gordon writes: “…we are ruled by people who hate us”

That would be true by the old saying that a lying tongue hates those that are afflicted by it.

Is the august American Heart Association (AHA) one of those lying tongues?

It is reported that for a payment of 1.7 million dollars in 1954 that the AHA promoted Crisco and bad-mouthed the traditional kitchen ingredients that were intended to be replaced by Crisco, a purely commercial transaction. The bad-mouthing was based on pure fiction, it is reported. If this is true, consider how far down a road of entrapment by corrupting entities we have traveled.

Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard

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Emma Gardner

December 4, 2016 4:59 pm

Ah, my friend, Gordon, but the decision-making in the Ministry of Health and by the Health Authorities which report to the Ministry – the meetings and budget/funding decisions – the policy decisions which don’t make front page news or any news at all and that you may not learn about at all unless you find the published Estimates to be exciting reading – that’s what I’m referring to. The doctors are only a union of employees, essentially. They don’t call the shots, they can only make recommendations and lobby the decision-makers, and most of their lobbying is for higher pay for themselves.

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Ken Conrad

December 4, 2016 5:42 pm

Emma,
If there is such a thing as universal health care in this country then let’s indeed make it universal, i.e. all inclusive and all embracing, and allow each person or the parents of a child to decide what care they wish themselves or their child to receive. Go ahead and try to expand healthcare coverage to include alternative modalities and just watch and see who dictates healthcare policy in this country!!!

Emma Gardner : your comment proves the point to which my screed failed to come (to) = I go back so far I remember “Saint” Tommy Douglas .. “Father of Medicare”. You’ll notice that all the little local hospitals in Saskatchewan are closing down now… even while that province is booming. + Another textbook example of why social-ism IN-evitably fails. When the voters booted him out of Sask-a-bush, Tommy was parachuted into the safest NDP riding in Canada hired by the United Church as a celebrity Pulpit Parrot…. mis-leading the flock to the abject apostasy in which if finds itself now. [ No mere co-incidence that East Burnaby United was one of the strongholds of Freemasonry. ] Since then, God went out of business in that neighbourhood / that congregation is no more. ….. but I digress the Medical Services Plan was presented to the Electorate of British Columbia as an insurance plan. In which a citizen could participate, or not. But of course, after the requisite waiting-period so taxpayers forgot election promises, the other shoe dropped : participation was made compulsory. And just for good measure ; so-called premiums were rated contingent upon a client filing a return of… Read more »

Stay tuned for the “Best” of 2016. I wager raw milk will not be on that one, either. I realize that is immaterial to you, but it does bear on the issue in my view.

Additionally, I read the article you posted. Of course, the Ohio Dept. of Ag uses their now infamous weasel words in their “Health Alert”, i.e.: “Later testing confirmed a connection between the illnesses and raw milk from Sweet Grass Dairy.”

What does “a connection” mean? Either you prove it up and rule out everything else, or you rule the illness cause as “undetermined.” Of course, that has never stopped the agenda, has it.

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Blesse\'d are the cheese makers

December 6, 2016 8:27 am

Thought I’d share this with all the free thinkers on this post: The Fence Test by Jeff Foxworthy Which side of the fence? If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test! If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life. If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect. If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. If a Democrat is down-and-out he wonders who is going to take care of him. If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. A Democrat demands that those they don’t like be shut down. If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. If… Read more »

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bora petski

December 7, 2016 11:39 am

Wait, … after a good laugh, are you a re publican? Where do those of us that buy neither party line fit in? I suspect that’s a fast growing segment. I despise politics and all those that practice them not that we ever do it ourselves.

Thanks, Bora — For the link to the article by Mike Adams. I had somewhat forgotten about him after he parted ways with Alex Jones. His article to which you cite is dead on. I need to subscribe to Natural News. Adams is in the good fight just as David Gumpert is. Anyway, there are some, even on this blog from time to time, who think the Electoral College should be abolished and that simple majority popular vote should decide the presidential elections in this country — Art. II, Section 1 of Constitution be damned. Of course, these folks mainly reside in California, so what would you expect. They’ve done such a great job out there, I cannot imagine why anyone would ever second guess all the great government work going on on the Left Coast — NOT! If the San Andreaus Fault doesn’t obliterate California by depositing coastal California into the Pacific, their Leftist State Government will obliterate them by delivering them into bankruptcy, both moral and financial. Be that as it may, I conclude with this . . . be careful, my friend, or someone might accuse you of going all “political” on us. Take care.

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Gordon Watson

December 8, 2016 9:49 am

a particular court action to do with raw milk, has finally got right down to the nitty-gritty of property rights in the face of a law of general applicability … raising the same question asked by Agister Alice Jongerden, in our case : “when did private become public?” Which the judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, never addressed, let alone answered. The FTCLDF is helping the dairy farmers in Michigan. I predict they’ll win this one.

“… raising the same question asked by Agister Alice Jongerden, in our case : “when did private become public?” A question relevant in the U.S., but which may not be applicable in Canada where all commerce is regulated in some form or another, particularly agricultural commerce, for example under B.C.’s “Natural Products Marketing Act” (quoted below) and its equivalents in every province (see https://rawmilkpolicy.wordpress.com). From the NPMA at http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/00_96330_01 : “1. Definitions: ‘marketing’ includes producing, packing, buying, selling, storing, shipping for sale, offering for sale or storage, and in respect of a natural product includes its transportation in any manner by any person; ‘natural product’ means a product of agriculture or of the sea, lake or river and an article of food or drink wholly or partly manufactured or derived from such product; ‘regulated product’ means a natural product the regulation of the marketing of which is provided for in a scheme approved or established under this Act;” “2 (1) The purpose and intent of this Act is to provide for the promotion, control and regulation of the marketing of natural products, including (a) the prohibition of all or part of that marketing,” This piece of trash was passed in… Read more »

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Gary Ogden

December 8, 2016 10:17 pm

David: Another example of fake news: Remember the AIDS con of the ’80’s and 90’s? Some in the MSM were claiming that we might be facing extinction. We’re still here. This was yet another gift to pharma by the CDC and the MSM, meanwhile perfectly healthy people died as a result of these extremely toxic (developed as chemical weapons) chemotherapy agents called anti-retrovirals, after a positive “HIV” test. Turns out the retrovirus called “HIV” has never been isolated.